Experiments involving the use of people will always remain a controversial topic. On one hand, they allow us to obtain more information about the human body that we can put to good use in the future. On the other hand, we have a whole slew of ethical issues to consider. The best that we can do as civilized human beings is to balance the two. Ideally, we should conduct experiments while bringing the least possible harm to the individual. This list shows the exact opposite of that concept. We can only imagine the pain these people went through as they were treated like nothing more than guinea pigs by those who liked to play God.

10 Surgery To Treat Insanity

Dr. Henry Cotton believed that localized infections were the root causes of insanity. After he became the head of an insane asylum in Trenton in 1907, he began implementing a procedure he dubbed “surgical bacteriology.” During that time, Cotton and his team performed thousands of surgical operations on patients, often without their consent. First, they extracted teeth and tonsils; if that wasn’t enough, they would go deeper and remove the internal organs which they believed were causing the problems. He believed in his methods so much that he even performed them on himself and his family. He extracted teeth from himself, his wife, and his two sons (one of whom also had part of his colon removed).

Cotton claimed that his treatments had a high rate of curing patients, and that claim soon became a lightning rod for critics who found his work appalling. In one instance, he justified the deaths of 49 patients from the colectomies and stated that they were already suffering from “end-stage psychosis” prior to the operations. An independent investigation later revealed that Cotton greatly exaggerated the results. After his death in 1933, the surgeries at the asylum ceased and Cotton’s viewpoints faded into obscurity. To his credit, critics ruled that he really was sincere in his efforts to cure his patients, albeit in an insane, deluded way.

9 Vaginal Surgery Without Anesthesia

J. Marion Sims, revered by many as a pioneer in the field of American gynecology, conducted an extensive surgical study on several female African-American slaves during the 1840s. The study, which spanned three years, focused on a surgical cure for vesicovaginal fistula, a condition that abnormally connects the bladder to the vagina. But here’s the kicker—he performed the surgeries without anesthesia. One subject, a woman named Anarcha, endured a whopping 30 operations before Sims finally got it right.

This wasn’t the only horrifying study that Sims performed. Among other insanities that we’ve discussed before, he also tried to cure the infants of slaves suffering from trismus (a condition similar to lockjaw in tetanus) using a shoemaker’s awl to pry their cranial bones into alignment.

8 Accidental Bubonic Plague

Richard Strong, a doctor and head of the Biological Laboratory of the Philippines Bureau of Science, performed several inoculations on inmates at a Manila prison in an attempt to find the perfect cholera vaccine. In one such experiment in 1906, he mistakenly gave the bubonic plague to the inmates instead of the cholera vaccine, which resulted in the deaths of 13 subjects. A government investigation into the incident later corroborated the findings and stated that “a plague serum was probably substituted for a bottle of cholera serum.”

Depressed by the debacle, Strong laid low for awhile, only to resurface six years later for another series of inoculations on the inmates—this time with the disease Beriberi. Some of the participants died, while those who survived were compensated with nothing more than a few packs of cigarettes. Strong’s notorious experiments were such a catastrophe that they were later cited by Nazi defendants at the Nuremberg trials to justify their own horrific research.

7 Slaves Doused With Boiling Water

In what could more accurately be described as torture than treatment, Dr. Walter Jones recommended boiling water as a cure for typhoid pneumonia during the 1840s. He tested his treatment on numerous slaves afflicted with the disease over the course of several months. Jones described in great detail how one patient, a sickly 25-year-old man, was stripped naked and made to lie down on the ground on his stomach. At this point, Jones poured five gallons of boiling water over the patient’s back.

However, that wasn’t the end of the poor man’s suffering—White stated that the treatment should be repeated every four hours, which he rationalized would be sufficient for “re-establishing the capillary circulation.” Jones later claimed that his treatment cured many patients, an assertion that was never independently verified. No surprise there.

6 Electric Current Applied Directly To The Brain

While the idea of shocking someone sounds painful by itself, one man—a Cincinnati physician named Dr. Roberts Bartholow—took it to the next level when he sent an electric current straight into the brain of one of his patients. In 1847, Bartholow was treating a patient named Mary Rafferty who was suffering from an ulcer in the skull. The ulcer had eaten its way so far through the bone that her brain had became visible.

With her permission, Bartholow inserted electrodes directly into her brain and applied varying currents to observe her reactions. He repeated his experiment eight times over a four-day period. Initially, Rafferty seemed fine; however, she became greatly agitated during the later stages of the tests and soon went into a coma. Shortly afterward, she died.

The resulting backlash was so great that Bartholow had to leave his job and continue his work elsewhere. He later settled in Philadelphia and attained a very high teaching position at Jefferson Medical College, proving that even mad scientists can catch the occasional break.

5 Testicle Transplants

Leo Stanley, the chief physician at San Quentin prison from 1913 to 1951, had a crazy theory: He believed that males who committed crimes had low levels of testosterone and, according to him, raising testosterone levels in inmates would reduce criminal behavior.

To test this notion, Stanley conducted a series of bizarre operations in which he surgically transplanted the testicles of newly executed criminals into still-living prisoners. Due to a lack of available human testicles (on average, only three executions took place inside the prison annually), Quentin soon turned to using various animal testicles that he would process into a liquid and inject into the prisoners’ skin.

By 1922, Stanley claimed that he had performed the operations on more than 600 inmates. He also claimed that his operations were successful; in one particular case he described how a senile Caucasian inmate became sprightly and energetic after being given the testicles of an executed African-American man.

4 Shock Therapy And LSD For Kids

Lauretta Bender is perhaps best known for devising the Bender-Gestalt test—a psychological test that assesses a child’s motor and cognitive abilities. However, Bender also engaged in several slightly more controversial studies. As psychiatrist of the Bellevue Hospital during the 1940s, Bender administered daily shocks to 98 pediatric patients in an effort to cure them of a condition she coined “childhood schizophrenia.”

She reported that the shocks were hugely successful, and that only a small number of the children went into relapse. As if the shock treatment wasn’t enough, Bender also gave the children adult-sized doses of mind-bending drugs such as LSD and psilocybin (the chemical in hallucinogenic mushrooms), often for weeks at a time. And while it was never officially proven, there have been allegations that she got her funds from the notorious CIA program MK-ULTRA.

3 The Guatemala Syphilis Experiment

In 2010, a highly unethical syphilis experiment came to light when a professor who was studying the infamous Tuskegee Study discovered that the same health organization also performed a similar experiment in Guatemala. This revelation spurred the White House to form an investigation committee, which later found that government-sponsored researchers intentionally infected 1,300 Guatemalans with syphilis in 1946.

The study, which lasted two years, aimed to find out if penicillin could be an effective treatment once a patient was already infected. To do that, the researchers paid prostitutes to spread the disease to other people—mostly soldiers, inmates, and psychiatric patients—who did not know they were being infected with syphilis. A total of 83 people died from the experiment. These ghastly findings prompted President Obama to personally apologize to the Guatemalan president and people.

2 Skin-Hardening Experiments

Dermatologist Albert Kligman ran a very comprehensive experimental program on inmates of Holmesburg Prison during the 1960s. In one such experiment, the US Army sponsored a study that focused on finding ways to harden the skin. Theoretically, the hardened skin could protect the soldiers from chemical irritants while in combat zones. Kligman applied various chemical-filled creams and agents to the inmates, but the only noticeable outcome was permanent scarring and a good deal of pain.

Pharmaceutical companies also paid Kligman to use his prisoners as guinea pigs to test their products. While the subjects were paid to participate, they were not fully informed of the experiments’ objectives and the potentially adverse effects that could result from them. Many of the chemical concoctions ended up causing the skin to blister and burn. Needless to say, Kligman displayed ruthless, mechanical efficiency in dealing with the inmates during his tenure at the prison. In fact, after he arrived at the prison for the first time, he remarked that “all I saw before me were acres of skin.”

Eventually, public uproar and a subsequent investigation forced Kligman to shut down his operations and destroy all the information from the experiments. Sadly, the former test subjects were never compensated, while Kligman later became rich by inventing Retin-A, the “drug of choice” against acne. Sometimes life just doesn’t play fair.

1 Experimental Spinal Taps On Children

While lumbar punctures—sometimes referred to as spinal taps—are often a necessary procedure, especially for neurological and spinal disorders, we can all agree that sticking a giant needle into someone’s spine is a recipe for excruciating pain. Yet, in 1896, a pediatrician named Arthur Wentworth decided to test the obvious. During an experimental spinal tap on a young girl, Wentworth noted how the patient cringed in pain during the procedure. Wentworth suspected that the operation was painful (it was believed to be painless at the time) but was not totally convinced. So he performed it again—on 29 infants and toddlers.

He eventually reached the conclusion that although temporarily painful, the procedure was very useful in helping diagnose illnesses. Wentworth’s findings received mixed reviews from his colleagues—some praised them while one critic denounced them as nothing more than “human vivisection.” Growing public indignation over the experiments later forced Wentworth to leave his teaching job at Harvard Medical School.

Marc V. is always open for a conversation, so do drop him a line sometime.

Throughout the ages, humans have sought different ways to change their perceptions and alter their states of being. Many ordinary people, spiritual gurus, monks, and even priests have relied on shifting their conscious experience to achieve some sort of enlightenment or even simple joy.

Euphoria, confusion, and delirium have all inspired and transformed people. Many methods to achieve these ends come with a truly phenomenal experience: hallucinations. One Swiss scientist defined hallucinations as “perceptions without the corresponding stimuli.”

Hallucinations can be terrifying, especially if you’re not expecting them to happen. But for some individuals, they’re downright fun. Here are 10 different types of hallucinations that humans experience and what they’re all about.

10 Excitation

Yes, something as simple as excitation can cause hallucinations and often does. The state of the brain which influences the mind and all its perceptions is a paramount consideration when it comes to the nature and origin of hallucinations, which can often result as a break from the homeostasis of the resting, so-called normal state of brain functioning.

In some people, things like anxiety can trigger hallucinations and the psychosis that sometimes ensues. Anxiety is not experienced in a calm state of mind. It’s directly caused by an overstimulation of the brain, much like what happens when people ingest certain drugs.

Hallucinations through excitation and anxiety aren’t necessarily signs or symptoms of an underlying mental illness. They’re simply a physiological response to the stress (or perceived stress) that the brain is experiencing.

These states of mind and the hallucinations—the vivid, terrifying light, the loud noises which didn’t really happen, the chatter which sounds like voices in the wind—all of this can happen to sane, ordinary people under the right conditions. So if you experience anxiety or excitation that causes hallucinations, you’re not alone. A lot of people share this experience.^[1]

9 Sleep Deprivation

Sleep deprivation is something that college students often experience religiously, and religious people often use it as a means of studying spirituality. But in all cases, under the right conditions, you might just end up with hallucinations.

Most of us have experienced this—the tiny, dancing movements that you know aren’t real, that feel so real, and that are just outside your focus. By and large, the mind comes from the brain as the various centers of the brain process their respective portions of our consciousness, which form a cohesive experience.

That said, if one goes for long periods of time without sleep, these centers of the brain and their constituent neurons begin to degrade, which eventually causes an inability for the brain as a whole to create a unified experience of consciousness. Thus, it is unable to make reasonable sense of the stimuli from the outside world.

Sleep deprivation mainly targets the visual cortex, and approximately 80 percent of people experience visual hallucinations when they don’t get enough sleep. Auditory hallucinations don’t occur with sleep deprivation.^[2]

Not all of this is under our control as it’s more than just staying up late watching TV. A slew of conditions, such as snoring, can prevent someone from getting enough sleep and send him down a path to hallucination. Sometimes, it’s just minor things that you see out of the corner of your eyes. But for some people, the hallucinations become bizarre, extreme, seemingly very real, and even nightmarish.

8 Hypnagogic Hallucinations

Hypnagogic hallucinations are the next most common type of hallucination caused by things relating to sleep. Experienced by 37 percent of the population, this is something we grow out of with age for the most part.

Have you ever been falling asleep and right before you get to the point of no return where you swim into your own little dreamland, you awaken suddenly, partially suspended in a purgatory between waking life and dream life? When this happens, many people experience hallucinations involving their waking selves and seemingly their dream at the same time. This is a hypnagogic hallucination.

Even more terrifying, these sorts of sleep hallucinations are primarily auditory in nature. They include ringing sounds, unpleasant or uncomfortable noises, chatter or popping, and even voices talking to you.

If people use certain drugs, even when they’re not on the drug itself, they can often experience hypnagogic hallucinations in the form of beginning to fall asleep, being suddenly jolted awake, and then suspended in a distorted reality of waking life. They perceive bugs or insects crawling all over their bodies, which sometimes causes these individuals to itch, scratch, or otherwise remove the hallucinatory objects from themselves.^[3]

7 Hypnopompic Hallucinations

The hypnopompic state occurs between waking up from sleep and being fully awake, and many know all too well that hallucinations can occur then, too. However, hypnopompic hallucinations are much less common, only experienced by approximately 12.5 percent of the population.

One of the common themes is sleep paralysis. It is a terrifying experience where the body is wholly paralyzed, suspended between wakefulness and sleep, and some rather dark sensations, even hallucinations, occur.

Sleep paralysis can be either hypnopompic or hypnagogic, but the feelings and fear are always the same. When transitioning out of sleep, the person senses some evil force coming toward him or in the room with him. Often, people report being stepped on, punched, or otherwise attacked by this entity—all while they can’t move.^[4]

Many creatures, demons, and ghosts have been attributed to this supposed entity. It’s seemingly universal and has been around and discussed since at least the days of ancient Greece, whose residents attributed the terrifying hallucinations to succubi and such.

Thanks to science, we now know that these terrifying hypnopompic hallucinations are actually errors in the brain that happen when there’s a problem with REM sleep. It’s a natural, albeit uncomfortable, part of how the brain works.

6 Blindness

One of the most fascinating forms of hallucination are the intense visual hallucinations of the blind. It’s actually rather common for blind people to see things that aren’t there or that they wouldn’t be capable of seeing.

These natural, nonpsychotic “trips” are precise, clear, and often elaborate. The experiencer is usually perfectly sane while seeing 140 small white gnomes prancing around in the snow in synchronization. Many people consider the hallucinations nothing shy of sublime, while others find them terrifying.

Charles Bonnet syndrome is the official name for this. Although the term was coined in the late 1700s, this phenomenon was nothing new. However, few know about it. One 64-year-old blind patient saw snakes crawling into and out of her body. Talk about a wild experience.

It’s estimated that at least 20–30 percent of the visually impaired population have these hallucinations. For obvious reasons, many people don’t feel quite right reporting them to others, including friends or family, for fear of mockery. So that number may be much higher.^[5]

5 Sensory Deprivation

One of the most challenging, terrifying, and unusual experiences is sensory deprivation. The brain was designed for all the senses to take in just the right stimuli to keep the organism alive. It was not intended to be deprived of these things.

This happens because the brain tries to adjust to the new level of sensory input, which is far different than normal. Any incremental changes are experienced as unusual and new phenomena.

This corresponds to hallucinations from excitation, where the brain is starved for new sensations but their input has been strongly blunted. It is much like a starved person who doesn’t need a full meal to be satisfied as he readjusts to a life with food again.

When the brain receives no sensory input for sound for long enough, it eventually begins to invent things from whatever hints of sound it supposes are there. People end up hearing imaginary voices and full-on conversations inside their heads.

This coincides with both the visual hallucinations of the blind and phantom limb syndrome, in which an amputee experiences sensations in a part of the body which is gone. The brain doesn’t receive the input it’s used to, so it just makes up whatever it thinks might be there.^[6]

4 Schizophrenia

One of the tragic hallmarks of schizophrenia is vivid hallucinations. These often present in the form of annoyances–such as hums, buzzes, and noises—for the person suffering from the affliction. Imagine having a hummingbird or an insect flying right next to your ear for several hours.

The visual hallucinations are much like the static of an old TV set displayed over the person’s field of vision. It’s like seeing the world through the craziest photo-video filter you can think of. Schizophrenia is a disease which gives people all sorts of hallucinations, not just those auditory ones mentioned already, but tactile, visual hallucinations where they close their eyes and “sense” themselves in other worlds.^[7]

Hearing voices or sometimes seeing and hearing people who aren’t in the room are common experiences in those diagnosed with schizophrenia. Having people whom these patients trust to tell them what is actually going on in the outside world is absolutely vital for many people with this disease.

With a nearly constant state of mind that misinterprets the inputs that the brain is receiving, it’s no wonder that this terrifying disease leads down the path of delusional thinking and behaviors. How do you know what’s real if all your sensations are lying to you at least a little bit?

3 Trance States

When humans didn’t have access to powerful drugs, they relied on a simpler and much more personal way of achieving the desired hallucinations through trance states and self-hypnosis. We’ve all heard that drugs such as dimethyltryptamine (DMT) can transport someone out of his body into what’s seemingly another world. But did you know that we can do this simply with the power of our minds?

This process is called autoscopic hallucination. The person transcends his body and experiences another world which is totally in his mind. For a few seconds or possibly minutes, a person is “out of his body” like a short, strong drug trip or near-death experience.

Autoscopic hallucinations can come from the trance states inspired by deep meditation and other means by which people transcend reality using nothing more than their mental faculties. Believe it or not, self-hypnosis is a very real thing. It can be achieved through concentrating on a single focal point, using the power of the mind to eliminate your surroundings, and replacing them with something totally hallucinated.^[8]

This may be the oldest form of intentional hallucination, perhaps besides mushrooms or other substances which can bring about such states. But don’t underestimate the power of the mind to intentionally conjure up hallucinations.

2 Epilepsy

Different types of epilepsy can cause different types of seizures and experiences in the affected individuals. Sadly, much like those with paranoid schizophrenia, epilepsy sufferers can have hallucinations accompanied by a fear of persecution or a feeling that someone is out to get them for some time before the onset of a seizure.

It is now being discovered that epilepsy can also cause powerful auditory hallucinations. This happens when the left temporal lobe is damaged. We’re not talking about the fuzz or chatter of other types of hallucinations but extremely complex strings of sound heard by the afflicted person.

We’re slowly starting to piece together the entire story of how epilepsy affects the brain, but it is known that some people experience extremely powerful hallucinations and sometimes a feeling of transcendence. About 80 percent of seizures in those with temporal lobe epilepsy are focal aware, otherwise known as aura seizures.

Although the patient is conscious during the whole seizure, he hallucinates the entire time. This type of seizure only affects one portion of the brain and can produce vivid, astonishing hallucinations.^[9]

1 Drugs

Probably the best-known form of hallucinatory experience in most places is the use of drugs or other mind-altering substances. From LSD to psilocybin, the way that chemicals affect the brain to cause hallucinations has often been described as “jamming the circuits.”^[10]

The transmission of information, usually by way of chemical compounds in the nervous system, creates an excessive stimulation of the senses, at least perceptively. Drugs are the synthetic way to produce sensory overload, and things become transposed and blurred. Anyone who’s taken these drugs will know exactly what I’m talking about.

A lot of science backs the idea that these sorts of chemically induced states are actually quite good for your physical and psychological health. Other hallucinations happen when people intentionally or accidentally poison themselves with certain plants.

These methods have been practiced by humans to achieve hallucinatory experiences for thousands of years. Some of these plants were considered to be medicinal by ancient and tribal cultures. Now science may be confirming their beliefs.

I like to write about the weird, the dark, odd, and unusual. Here’s a fun little piece on different types of hallucinations.

As Mufasa from The Lion King so rightfully stated, we are all a part of the circle of life. The planet, the ecosystems, and all the plants and animals on Earth are connected on a deep level. In many ways, the survival and existence of one species often depends on the survival of many others.

But we’re not just talking about the animal kingdom here. Human beings are no exception. With the severe impacts of climate change and man-made catastrophes such as deforestation and pollution, humans have become increasingly disconnected from nature. So it’s time to take a step back and look at 10 animals on which we rely for our survival.

10 Bees

Those little creatures that are best-known for so craftily making delicious honey actually play a more vital role in the Earth’s functions than you may think. Across the globe, these hardworking little insects transport pollen from flower to flower on their daily routes.^[1]

Pollination is vital as it’s basically what makes most of the plant life on the planet grow. A life without plants, flowers, trees, and fruits would occur without bees doing their handiwork. Unfortunately, the population of bees has fallen by up to 80 percent in certain parts of the world due to human interaction, climate change, disease, and pesticide usage.

9 Plankton

Yes, those microscopic algae, bacteria, and living creatures that are too small to swim against the current play a vital role in our existence. Despite their minuscule size, plankton sustain billions of marine animals by providing food to creatures even as big as the blue whale.

With over 50,000 different plankton species in the light zone of the ocean, they are even visible from space. These little creatures not only feed fish, whales, dolphins, and seabirds, they also provide us with arguably the most pivotal role of all: They’re the reason we can all breathe.

Phytoplankton absorb energy from the Sun and nutrients from the water, the two ingredients needed for photosynthesis. Plankton photosynthesis is responsible for half the world’s oxygen, with the other half coming from photosynthesis on land by trees and other plants.^[2]

8 Ants

So far, humans have discovered over 12,000 species of ants across the world and chances are that you can find them in abundance in almost every ecosystem. These nifty little creatures help to create and maintain healthy soil conditions for plants (aka our food) to grow.^[3]

This crucial activity happens when ants dig into the dirt, building tunnels and aerating the soil as they go. In turn, this aids in decomposition by recycling the nutrients present in the soil.

7 Bats

Yes, these creatures can be somewhat scary. But contrary to popular belief, these vampire-like animals do more good than harm. With over 1,200 species of bats, they are the second-largest order of mammals on the planet. In fact, one in five mammals is a bat.

They’re also the only ones that can fly. As such, they do a great job of performing insect control all around the globe. Bats consume millions of pest insects, meaning that we don’t even have the discomfort of dealing with them.

In numerous countries, mosquitoes carry dangerous and sometimes deadly diseases such as malaria and dengue fever. Bats can eat up to 1,000 mosquitoes an hour. In many countries, however, bats are currently facing the loss of habitat through deforestation and other human actions.^[4]

6 Frogs

If only there were some kind of creature that could reliably and effectively indicate the health of various ecosystems and serve as a warning sign for humans to take action. Oh yeah, frogs can do that.

They serve as bio-indicators because their skin absorbs substances in their surrounding habitat.^[5] Consequently, any changes to their skin will indicate contamination or other issues present in the area. Frogs can exist in water as well as on land, meaning that these miraculous animals will be the first to react to any hazards.

5 Fungi

We know you’re all thinking about the mold growing around the house or those not-so-nice foot fungal infections. With over 144,000 known species of organisms in the kingdom Fungi, it was fungi that allowed plants to obtain the nutrients and water from the soil around them.^[6]

Despite popular beliefs, plants do not directly absorb these essential components of life into their roots. Instead, they have the wondrous fungi gather and deliver them from the surrounding soil.

As their second vital function, fungi are also the main nutrient recyclers in nature. They do this with the remnants of dead plants and animals by decomposing them and returning the nutrients to nature to be used again.

4 Fish

Recent research has given light to something you probably did not know. According to researchers at the University of Exeter, fish can help to reduce the impacts of climate change with their excrement.

Yep, fish excrement can significantly reduce the acidity of oceans. In maintaining an ocean’s delicate pH balance, fish excrement floats to the surface of the water and then ultimately dissolves. When this process happens, it forms carbon dioxide which then helps to create acidity in the ocean.

There’s been a lot of talk in recent years about the pressing issue of overfishing. According to National Geographic, 31 percent of the world’s fish populations are overfished and another 58 percent are fished at the maximum sustainable level.^[7] With seven billion people demanding more fish on their plates, these sea creatures soon won’t be able to reproduce as fast as they are in demand.

3 Worms

How many of you had worm farms growing up? Well, if you did, you may have been onto something. Those wriggly, slimy, little underground creatures can actually help dramatically reduce the amount of waste sent to landfills. Rather than putting waste straight into the garbage disposal, people have started to return to worm composting systems.

This practice of decomposition by worms can aid in cutting down green matter and the sheer amount of waste generated in everyday households. In addition, using a worm composting system can create a wonderful fertilizer for your garden and other plants.^[8]

2 Primates Other Than Humans

These cute creatures aren’t just a wonderful economic earner from tourism ventures or our closest biological link. With over 300 different species in the world, primates provide an important role in maintaining tropical and subtropical forests.

Primates’ dung droppings plant the seeds for the trees of tomorrow and keep these forests growing and healthy. Without such ecosystems, we would be without a permanent source of carbon. Tropical rain forests also influence global rainfall patterns. If there are fewer trees in these rain forests, less moisture goes into the atmosphere, rainfall is reduced, and water supplies decline.^[9]

1 Birds

Although all the previously mentioned animals are masters of their own trades, birds seem to dabble a little bit in everything, making them quite important to our world. Included in their broad variety of ecological roles, birds perform insect control, forest decomposition, nutrient recycling, pollination and seed sowing, and soil aeration.^[10]

Visit Montana at http://montanamincher.com.

The phrase “flesh-eating” is nightmarish enough to stop anyone dead in their tracks, conjuring up images of flesh falling off of the bone, deep black necrosis, or perhaps a zombie apocalypse in which the undead are biting flesh from bone. Be it flesh-eating zombies, flesh-eating animals, or, even more terrifying, flesh-eating microscopic organisms, the idea of being eaten alive is downright terrifying, and when it comes to the latter, it’s more frightening to think of something you can’t see that slowly eats away at you.

The world of pathogens is a strange world indeed, and there are some pretty nasty critters out there that would love nothing more than to take a bite out of your flesh—and sometimes bone. Some pathogens hijack the minds of their human hosts, controlling their behavior, their thought patterns, and even their actions. Others lodge themselves inside you and consume you from the inside out. Here are ten nightmarish flesh-eating pathogens and their destructive ways.

10 Necrotizing Fasciitis

Necrotizing fasciitis deserves an honorable mention here at the top of the list, as it’s the result of several infections on this list. Necrotizing fasciitis is caused by the presence of pathogens which cause the skin to rot, especially when they become entrenched into the inner layers of the flesh. If it isn’t treated right away, necrotizing fasciitis can kill you, with anywhere from 25 to 30 percent of the cases being fatal.

Necrotizing fasciitis has earned the moniker “flesh-eating disease,” which is quite the terrifying name. While the infections that cause it vary, the pathogens don’t literally eat the flesh but rather excrete toxins that destroy tissue, causing the condition.^[1] Drug and alcohol users as well as diabetics and those who are immunocompromised are particularly at risk for necrotizing fasciitis.

9 Vibrio Vulnificus

Vibrio vulnificus is often found in a place that’s a perfect climate for the bacterium to grow and also possesses the large bodies of water which it likes to flourish in: Florida. A person can become infected either by going into the water with an open cut or wound or consuming undercooked or uncooked seafood, as it lives and thrives in salt water. Vibriosis, the disease spawned from the Vibrio genus of bacteria, can be fatal. It should be noted, as alluded to above, that V. vulnificus causes the flesh to rot rather than eating it, but that difference is quite irrelevant when you see chunks of your arm missing.

Even more terrifying is that V. vulnificus not only attacks the surface flesh but can bury itself and get underneath the top layer of tissue. It can even seep in and cause the internal organs to rot away and even eventually shut down. Sometimes, people lose limbs to the disease.^[2] Again, the immunocompromised are much more likely to contract this flesh-rotting bacterium, as well as people with liver problems. The Centers for Disease Control in the United States suggests not eating raw or undercooked fish if you’re trying not to catch this, and 80 percent of cases come between May and October, when the water is warmer, so these are the best times to avoid the water to avoid the disease.

8 Donovanosis

Donovanosis, also known as granuloma inguinale, is a disease that comes from the bacterium Klebsiella granulomatis. It’s relatively new on the scene, and it may very well be the scariest thing on this list. Why? Because it’s an STD. That’s right, donovanosis is a flesh-eating STD.^[3] The bacteria can destroy the flesh in, around, or on the genitals and can do more damage if they spread to other parts of the body. The damage to the exterior flesh can cause large, red, vascular lesions, and these holes in your flesh bleed.

This disease typically makes its initial home at sites in and around the pelvis but can work its way up inside of you and get into your organs, damaging them, too. If that wasn’t bad enough, in extreme cases, Klebsiella granulomatis can get into your bones as well if not treated promptly. Fortunately, the treatment is rather simple, with broad-spectrum or targeted antibiotics. But imagine waking up one day to find your genitals and the surrounding areas slowly rotting—even if it’s treatable, this is a day that nobody wants to see.

7 Pseudomonas Aeruginosa

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a bacterium that grows pretty much everywhere and on pretty much everything, though it doesn’t always infect us—instead, it waits for an opportune opening, such as a cut or scrape, and when the conditions are just right, it will seep into the wound and multiply. P. aeruginosa can cause necrotizing fasciitis. The good news is that healthy people generally have a very low risk of becoming infected by this particular bacterium, but as is often the case, those who have immune system deficiencies can experience problems with it.^[4]

If left untreated, Pseudomonas aeruginosa can reach the internal organs and cause death. If left alone, it will eat all the way down to the bone. As with other Pseudomonas species, some of the more severe cases invole infections in the blood or the lungs. What’s really the most terrifying thing about Pseudomonas is the fact that many strains of it have developed antibiotic resistance and are quite difficult to treat, meaning that P. aeruginosa could eat away at you while doctors attempt to find an antibiotic regimen that will work to eliminate the bacteria.

6 Staphylococcus Aureus

Yes, as freaky as it sounds, the common staph infection can become necrotic and flesh-eating. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is Staph aureus with additional antibiotic resistance, making infections rather difficult for modern medicine to treat. Fortunately, not all cases of staph and MRSA turn into flesh-eating necrosis, but doctors can’t actually tell which strains and cases will eventually turn into a condition that eats away at the flesh, so it’s better to treat all situations involving these bacteria as if they were about to become necrotic.^[5]Staph aureus and its antibiotic-resistant counterpart both present with a nasty, thick pus which can get deep into the skin, working its way into muscles and ultimately into the bloodstream—once these infections seep into the blood, a powerful and brutal sickness ensues, and death is a likely possibility. On top of that, if the condition brings about necrotizing fasciitis, you’ll have some serious decay and blackening of the tissue layers as the excreted toxins from the bacteria wreck havoc.

5 Naegleria Fowleri

Naegleria fowleri is an amoeba that severely affects the brain on the rare occasion that it inhabits a human host—these dangerous critters love to hang out and reproduce in fresh water, making them ample under the right climate conditions, though they need to travel up the nose and into the brain in order to “hijack” your mind. How do they do that? By reproducing and spreading quickly and then slowly eating away at your brain, that’s how.

Under certain conditions, the amoeba just forms into a cyst that’s inactive and doesn’t do much of anything, but when conditions become right, they become active and begin to feed. The Centers for Disease Control says about the mechanism of death from this particular amoeba: “The infection destroys brain tissue causing swelling and death.”^[6] This is definitely not a fun pathogen to catch by any stretch of the imagination.

4 Clostridium Perfringens

Clostridium perfringens is another nasty one. It can be found in soil, water, and the human intestinal tract. This bacteria can cause a specific kind of gangrene called gas gangrene, and it definitely does not at all look very fun. The toxins which are excreted by the bacteria travel through veins, blood vessels, and other bodily systems, and they kill off the flesh inside of the body by poisoning it.^[7]

This causes massive distention, huge pockets of bloating gas that come from the bacteria feeding and releasing of gasses inside the body. Massive bulbs of purple and red swelling show up on the outside of the body as the internal gasses protrude and push outward.

3 Streptococcus Pyogenes

Possibly the best-known cause of necrotizing fasciitis is Streptococcus pyogenes, also referred to as “Group A Streptococcus.” This bacterium also causes strep throat, which many people, even in the developed world where antibacterial everything is prevalent, end up catching at one point, often as children. Like the others on this list, Streptococcus pyogenes produces toxic byproducts which cut through tissue layers of fat, muscle, and skin like butter. This infection starts off rather mild, most commonly presenting as a sore throat, but it can progress and eat away at the tissue of the infected and even cause toxic shock syndrome, a condition that comes with headache, nausea, vomiting, and much more and is also definitely no fun to get.

While most cases of strep throat don’t turn into “the flesh-eating disease,” some of them do, and the effects can be both long-term and devastating.^[8] This happens when the body’s immune response isn’t quick or powerful enough to fight off the invasive strep, and the results can be deadly. Yes, the common strep throat can actually eat your flesh until you die.

2 E. Coli

Escherichia coli is a relatively well-known bacterium which is often responsible for the common food poisoning we all miserably endure every so often. This is the usual E. coli infection, and it’s nothing to shake a stick at, but sometimes, E. coli can go above and beyond the usual case of what we know of as “food poisoning” and become catastrophically worse. As with most bacteria, the body’s immune system as well as antibiotics have fought off the invaders for a very long time, causing variations in the strains which possess radically different traits and can have radically different outcomes upon infection. Some strains of E. coli can cause the death and decay of the skin cells also as they slowly eat away at your flesh.

These strains prey upon people with limited or suppressed immune systems, which can’t fight off the infection—all cases in some studies have been fatal. A specific gene called the cnf1 toxin gene is possessed by the flesh-eating variations of E. coli, which causes them to emit a toxin which destroys flesh like an acid. Animal studies have shown that the presence of this gene in the bacteria causes the toxin to be excreted when animals are infected as well. These E. coli strains are the stuff that nightmares are made of.^[9]

1 Mycobacterium Ulcerans

Mycobacterium ulcerans is a bacterium which is the cause of a disease called buruli ulcer, which causes, you guessed it, ulcers to appear within the skin. But much more than this, buruli ulcer is also a flesh-eating condition. Prolonged infection will cause ulcers on the arm and legs typically, and the chunks of flesh which have been eaten away will usually worsen over time. Only ten percent of cases present with flesh-eating ulcers in other parts of the body outside of the limbs, but that’s still a scary ten percent. As the bacteria spread, they produce a toxin called mycolactone, which is responsible for the destruction of flesh in patients who’ve contracted the bacterial infection and allowed it to progress to the disease of buruli ulcer.

Even more terrifying than having this bacterium secrete toxins which eat away at your flesh while you wait helplessly for it to go away, or for your treatments to work, is that beyond just skin, ligament, muscle, and other soft tissues, the disease can eventually spread down to the bone and begin to eat away at that, too.^[10] And what’s even more nightmarish than that? They have no idea how this bacterium spreads. Very little is known about how M. ulcerans transmits from one person to the next, so we don’t really know what any of us can do to avoid becoming its next target—yet. Hopefully someday, science will develop methods to eradicate these bacteria as well as new and unique treatments, but for now, we’re stuck with limited knowledge and treatment options.

I like to write about the dark, strange, macabre, and unusual.

It’s a rarely discussed global phenomenon, but people are beating up, dismembering, and destroying robots. Nobody knows exactly why this is happening. Anti-robot violence is a disturbing trend that continues to grow as robots become more immersed in human society.

Experts contemplate the reasons why people are raging against the machine. One possibility is the overwhelming anxiety over job losses, estimated to affect over 375 million people by 2030, caused by robots entering the workforce.

Another possibility may be the natural human tendency to fear outsiders. Robots may look and act somewhat like us, but they are not us. Frederic Kaplan at Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne in Switzerland wrote that this increasing unease between man and machine may occur because we are so similar.

Kaplan wrote, “We see ourselves in the mirror of the machines that we can build.” As the public does not fully understand these eerie humanoid robots, people are driven to acts of violence.

10 Hitchhiking Robot Found Dismembered

The HitchBOT was a child-sized robot with a bucket-shaped body, yellow boots, blue foam limbs, and a charming LED smiley face. It was created for an interesting psychological test—not for the robot but for the humans it encountered.

HitchBOT’s stated goal was to see whether robots could trust humans. As it wasn’t capable of moving from place to place on its own, it relied on the help of the strangers it met. The robot’s audio and visual hardware allowed it to see humans and converse with them. It also had a sense of where it was at all times and constantly took photos of its surroundings.

This adorable little guy was an international adventurer and social media star. It successfully hitchhiked across Canada in less than four weeks. It also journeyed through Germany and the Netherlands without a scrape. It spent a week as a groupie for a heavy metal band and explored the winding canals of Amsterdam. Its next stop in the United States, however, didn’t go so well.

HitchBOT was a mere one-year-old when it was mugged in the “City of Brotherly Love” and beat up beyond repair. Vandals tore off its arms, threw them on the ground, and started kicking the robot. Nobody knows who ended the robot’s journey or why, but the creators aren’t pressing charges. They released a statement simply asking the world, “What can be learned from this?”^[1]

9 Destroyed Sex Robot

According to a recent survey of heterosexual men, 40 percent wanted to buy a sex robot in the next five years. Some experts suggest that the popularity of interactive sex robots may reduce or even replace traditional prostitution and thereby decrease sex trafficking as well.

Brothels with this new class of robotic sex workers have already opened in countries like Spain and Ireland. It is an industry with a lot of potential to rake in some serious dough. That’s why there’s so much effort toward making these sex robots look and act realistically.

At the Arts Electronica Festival in Austria, Sergi Santos unveiled his doll, Samantha. This doll is intelligent in that it can reply when spoken to and it moans when touched in sensitive places. Santos’s robot, which was worth almost $4,000, was molested at the show.^[2]

Santos said, “The people mounted Samantha’s breasts, her legs, and arms. Two fingers were broken. She was heavily soiled.” He referred to the perpetrators as “barbarians” in his outrage over his creation being trashed by these nonpaying vandals.

8 Harassing Self-Driving Cars

Even self-driving cars are being abused in all kinds of bizarre ways. In Chandler, Arizona, 21 incidents of this type of harassment have been documented by the police department in just two years. Some people are engaging in verbal abuse, throwing rocks, slashing tires, or chasing these cars down the road. Clearly, some individuals do not want cars driving for them. Perhaps by attacking them, they believe they are standing up for the human race.^[3]

Arguably, the most shocking of these incidents was when 69-year-old Roy Haselton was standing on the side of the road as a self-driving car rolled by. His immediate, guttural reaction to the autonomous vehicle was to pull out his gun and point it directly at the van.

One week later, he was arrested. His .22-caliber revolver was confiscated, and he was indicted on a felony charge for disorderly conduct with a weapon. The eerie encounter was captured in the video posted above.

7 Funeral Held For Robot After Violent Beating

The rivalry between the soccer teams of England and Russia is no joke. During a 2016 match in France, fans from both countries ended the event in a bloody brawl. So, in Moscow, a robot was created to protect fans at the FIFA World Cup and make them feel more secure. The friendly robot is named Alantim.

In a promotional video, Alantim says, “There’s nothing to be afraid of, I’ll protect you. I promise to escort you in Moscow and keep you away from any problems.”

Alantim speaks both English and Russian. It helps with information and directions. It even entertains. The robot is able to contact the police instantly, but its most advanced feature is an ability to predict conflicts from the surrounding crowd before a situation escalates.

Before the robot could fulfill its purpose, a man viciously charged Alantim with a baseball bat. He kicked it to the ground and bashed in its head while the robot pleaded for help.^[4]

Sadly, Alantim could not be revived after the attack. This incident prompted Olga Budnik, a spokesperson for the Muscovite tech hub Phystechpark, to create the world’s first robot cemetery. She didn’t want to simply plop the robot parts into the trash bin, so she made a space for people to be able to say goodbye.

Budnik said, “Alantim was a really good robot. It was supportive, always polite, always happy to see you. You know, like a pet.” Alantim was worth about $10,000.

6 Children Abuse Robots, Too

As children are helpless in so many ways, they get a frantic thrill from being in control. It turns out that this includes a lust for violence against robots.

This desire for dominance is a hindrance in places such as schools, hospitals, museums, and shops where robots will need to interact with children in the near future. So, scientists and psychologists are working together to create a robot that children don’t want to beat up.

With this motivation in mind, researchers in Japan conducted a social experiment in a shopping mall by observing children with a human-sized robot. When children became aggressive, the robot responded to negative physical contact in a humanlike manner. Still, they mercilessly bullied the robot in a fit of laughter. The researchers wrote:

We observed serious abusive behaviors with physical contact such as kicking, punching, beating, folding arms, and moving (bending) the joints of robot’s arm and head. [ . . . ] Some children frequently obstructed the robot’s path regardless of the robot’s utterance requesting for the children to stop the obstruction, covered up the robot’s eyes with their hands, and beat the robot’s head.^[5]

The researchers interviewed 23 children, all under age 10, who had just abused the robot. Curiosity, enjoyment, and peer pressure were the biggest motivators. But the researchers discovered something quite upsetting about the kids’ perception of the robot.

The majority of children did perceive the robot as a humanlike being, while only 13 percent saw it as a machine. This means that they recognized that the robot seemed to be experiencing pain and stress, but they didn’t care. They were in control and having a blast.

5 Security Robot Smeared With Feces

In San Francisco, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) was using a 181-kilogram (400 lb) Knightscope K5 security robot to patrol the streets around their campus in an effort to prevent the homeless from sleeping or loitering there. The SPCA believed that the robot was reducing crime and needle debris around their campus.

However, the K5 angered a lot of people who felt that this was an unfair attack on the homeless. The robot was knocked over, veiled with a tarp, and had its sensors blinded with barbecue sauce. Someone even smeared feces all over it.^[6] As of early 2019, hiring a robot for this job appeared to be more cost-effective at about $6 to $12 an hour than the minimum wage of $15 per hour for a human in San Francisco.

4 A Robot Built To Withstand A Fight

Engineers are racing to see who can create the toughest robot that can really take a beating. This quality is in high demand these days. In Tokyo, the Robust Humanoid Robot (aka RHP2) was built to take some serious punishment. It’s a human-sized, bipedal robot that is run by electric motors (soon to be a hydraulic system).

This robot is unique because it will always stand up again no matter how often it is knocked down. Like the film character Rocky said, “It ain’t about how hard ya hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward.” Once knocked down, the robot pulls itself up again every time—just like a human.^[7]

There is a lot of (expensive) damage that can happen to a robot when it topples over. Just like a cat has the instinct to right itself during a fall, RHP2 has been programmed to fall in a specific position. It’s also built with a metal frame to protect its innards.

3 Assaulting Pepper

If you thought WALL-E was the cutest robot around, then you obviously haven’t met Pepper. It is human-sized but a little on the shorter side with a mermaid fin for a leg. Between the adorable voice, sound effects, little cartoon smile, and big blue eyes, it’s hard not to fall in love.

It’s also programmed to understand and respond to human emotions. A tablet attached to its midsection is used to demonstrate how it’s “feeling.” This robot assistant sold out in just one minute.^[8]

However, some seem to be immune to the robot’s charm. While shopping in a SoftBank Corp. store, a drunken customer kicked and beat up Pepper in a whirlwind of fury. This particular Pepper clone moves a little slower these days but is otherwise all right.

2 Torturing Pleo The Dinosaur

Pleo the dinosaur is a lovable toylike robot that was created to be both beaten and cuddled in psychological experiments to test human empathy for robots. A workshop presented Pleo as a plaything at first. People quickly grew to adore his trusting eyes and endearing noises as he learned to move around the table.

When Pleo is first pulled from the box, it can’t walk or do anything. Its caretaker teaches it about the world through play, with some hugs and tickles sprinkled in.

After an hour of innocent bonding with Pleo, the participants were asked to torture and kill him. Weapons were spread out on the table, including knives, hammers, and hatchets.

Kate Darling is the laughably ironic name for the robot ethicist who conducted these studies. The workshop mentioned above was just for fun apparently. The actual science involved people watching videos while their bodily reactions were monitored. The result of the workshop, however, was more dramatic than even Darling had anticipated.

It’s not the same as taking a defunct copier machine from work and beating it up with a baseball bat because we’re talking about a new kind of machine: the social robot. It’s meant to evoke your empathy. So it’s no wonder that people couldn’t harm it despite their logical brains telling them that it was just a stupid robot. One participant stood with hammer raised, frozen mid-swing. Eventually, they just decided to pet Pleo instead.^[9]

Then Darling told them that they could save their dinosaurs by killing someone else’s. Still, nobody moved a muscle. Eventually, she announced that one Pleo had to be sacrificed or all the robots would be slaughtered. That’s when one man grabbed a hatchet and gave a single fatal blow to one of the dinosaurs.

The room fell silent. Everyone was surprised by their intense emotions. If you are curious as to how you’d react, check out the video above. Without even getting to know the robot’s endearing side, it’s still almost too much to handle.

1 Kicking A Robot Dog

Boston Dynamics, an American engineering and robotics design company, released a video that unexpectedly stirred people’s emotions. It showed employees repeatedly kicking a doggie robot they named Spot. It was supposed to demonstrate the robot’s resilience and balance, but viewers saw it as downright cruel.

PETA jumped on the bandwagon by releasing a statement that said, “Most reasonable people find even the idea of such violence inappropriate.” Even Elon Musk chimed in and said that it’s probably unwise to kick a robot. He said, “Their memory is very good.”^[10]

The video posted above sparked a lot of interesting discussion about robot abuse. Is kicking a robot like Spot desensitizing people to violence and making them more likely to practice abuse in real life? Or is it a useful outlet that may divert such cruel behavior? Nobody really knows yet.

No one is saying that Homo sapiens climbed out of their spaceships fully formed on planet Earth one day. We obviously spent a lot of time evolving on Earth.

However, scientists have difficulty tracing our most distant origins—that is, our basic building blocks. Even though it sounds straight out of a science fiction movie, it’s hypothesized that life, including human life, initially came from outer space. That’s right, aliens may be our ancestors.

Panspermia, the transfer of viable organisms between planets, is considered a serious hypothesis by planetary scientists. It seems utterly bizarre, but this idea is so highly regarded in the scientific community that it’s being funded by NASA, MIT, and Harvard, to name a few.

There are many subsets of belief within this general hypothesis, like the purposeful planting of intelligent life by aliens, which is called directed panspermia. However, the most widely accepted notion is called ballistic, or interplanetary, panspermia. It’s the idea of life being exchanged between planets within a solar system.

There are many reasons to believe we may not be Earthlings after all.

10 Fossil Evidence

Currently, the earliest sign of life on Earth is from 3.83 billion years ago. During this period, a series of formidable meteor showers occurred. This heavy barrage of comets colliding into Earth suggests that any life that was forming at that time would have certainly faced extinction.

Remember the dinosaurs? Meteors are no joke. That was just one meteor the size of Mount Everest, but it made the Earth’s surface hotter than the Sun after crashing “20 times faster than a bullet.” While it seems apparent that these fireballs of fury snuffed out any life on Earth, they may have also been vessels for the life to come.

Evolution is agonizingly slow. It took several billion years for single-cell life to become multicellular, for example. So, how is it that directly after the most epic meteor shower our planet has ever seen, Earth was ripe and ready to spontaneously spawn DNA-based life? The planet hardly had time to cool down enough to support life, let alone create it.

The period of meteor showers ended sometime earlier than approximately 3.8 billion years ago. Evidence of life shows up in the fossil records from 3.83 billion years ago. If Earth was cooling down then, life evolved in the blink of an eye from an evolutionary standpoint. Unless, of course, life had already arrived. Many scientists hold these ancient fossil records as evidence of panspermia.^[1]

9 We Are Not Alone

In our lifetime, space experts predict that we will discover alien life. The more we learn, the more unlikely that we are all alone on our tiny blue marble in the vastness of space. NASA astronomer Kevin Hand even said, “I think in the next 20 years, we will find out we are not alone in the universe.”^[2]

Extrasolar planets (aka exoplanets) are those that orbit around a star like our Sun. The first one was discovered in 1995. Today, we’ve observed around 4,000 exoplanets. More than 50 are Earth-sized planets.

In 2014, NASA observed a planet the size of Earth orbiting a sun just like ours right in the sweet spot of the habitable zone. We are getting closer every year to fundamentally shifting how humanity sees itself in the universe. It’s just a matter of waiting.

8 Life Can Survive On An Asteroid

There have been a lot of studies about life enduring the journey through space on an asteroid’s back. It appears to be possible. Gerda Horneck, a microbiologist for the German Aerospace Center, discovered that bacteria can survive in space for years.

In the 1980s, she sent living organisms to live on a NASA satellite. Without nutrients, the bacteria formed resilient spores that acted as a defensive shell. Intense ultraviolet rays killed the top layer of spores, but the dead spores only strengthened the outer layer to shield the life within. After six years, those stubborn bacteria had survived the frigid vacuum of space—to everyone’s disbelief.^[3]

Tardigrades (aka “water bears”) can also survive UV exposure with no problem. But if a microorganism was shielded from the UV rays, as it would be inside, say, a meteor, it would be even easier to survive. Some studies suggest that microbes hitching a ride deep within a meteor could even survive hundreds of millions of years in a dormant state.

7 Surviving Impact Is Possible

Dina Pasini, a researcher at the University of Kent, has already learned that algae spores could hypothetically survive a meteor crash. Her team decided to use a single-celled, ocean-dwelling algae to mimic the conditions of early life.

First, they constructed pellets made of rock and ice embedded with the algae. Then they used a two-stage light gas gun to accelerate objects to incredible speeds.

They shot the pellets through the water at 6.93 kilometers per second (4.31 mps). Miraculously, not all the spores were killed off. The higher the speed, though, the more that died. Still, there were survivors.

Pasini asks, “If we find life on another planet, will it be truly alien or will it be related to us? And if so, did it spawn us or did we spawn it? We cannot answer these questions just now, but the questions are not as far-fetched as one might assume.”^[4]

6 Martian Contamination

Mars is the best contender for ballistic panspermia—that is, the spreading of life from planet to planet within our solar system. In their youth, Mars and Earth were both watery worlds with the potential for harboring life. It’s perfectly plausible that Mars just did it first. Then the building blocks of life hitched a ride to Earth. Technically speaking, that would make us “Martians.”

In 1984, a meteorite was discovered in Antarctica that had broken apart from Mars about four billion years ago. Some astrobiologists claim that it contains the ingredients of ancient life in the form of fossilized microbes. MIT is funding research to explore the possibility that life on Earth came from Mars. They invented a detection tool to sample the surface of Mars in search of DNA and RNA, the building blocks of life.

Getting Martian material to Earth is actually pretty darn easy. At NASA’s Ames Research Center, scientists who are working on the question of ballistic panspermia estimate that up to 5 percent of the rocks launched from Mars land on Earth within 10 million years. Some rocks can even arrive in just several years.

In the first 500 million years of our solar system, 50 billion Martian rocks landed on Earth. Four billion years later, five billion more Martian meteorites collided with Earth. Long story short, if life did exist on Mars first, it would’ve had ample opportunity to repeatedly contaminate Earth. Cue the song: “Is There Life On Mars?”^[5]

5 A Recent Interstellar Visitor

A short time ago, there was an uproar about the first known interstellar visitor to the solar system. They called the cigar-shaped object “Oumuamua.” It was estimated to be about 800 meters (2,600 ft) long.

It looked eerily like Stanley Kubrick’s monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey, and it didn’t help matters that it appeared to move at “nongravitational acceleration.” Rumors of an alien spacecraft couldn’t be avoided, but researchers speculated that its weird movements were actually due to a phenomenon called outgassing.

Researchers could also tell that the object was made of ice. Karen Meech, an astrobiologist for the University of Hawaii’s Institute for Astronomy, said, “This tells us that ices can survive over these interstellar distances.” Not to mention, the object is assumed to have thermal insulation and act as a radiation shield.

So Meech suggests that the idea of an interstellar object containing some living organism isn’t out of the realm of possibility. She said, “Some living organism . . . could be preserved in a cold deep freeze.”^[6]

Oumuamua serves as a shining example that perhaps life could have traveled to Earth a long time ago from a galaxy far, far away.

4 Genetic Material Found In Meteorite

In 1969, a meteorite that crashed into Earth was found to contain the raw genetic materials of life. That’s not even the craziest part. These carbon-based components, like sugars and amino acids, are thought to have formed in outer space while tethered to the meteor.

Zita Martins, a chemist and astrobiologist at Imperial College London, said, “It really clarifies at least that the building blocks of genetic material, the nucleobases, were available [in early Earth]. We are not saying that only meteorites contributed to the building blocks of life, but it’s a very great contribution.”^[7]

The finding increases the likelihood that the epic meteor shower of four billion years ago seeded ancient Earth with DNA building blocks. What’s more, life may have originally taken shape while traveling through space instead of on another planet. Then the ingredients landed on Earth on the back of a shooting star.

3 Organic Molecules And Amino Acid Discovered In Space Cloud

“The Stardust” is the name that scientists gave the samples that were taken from the dusty, gaseous cloud surrounding a comet. Impressively, these particular samples contained complex organic molecules and phosphorus as well as an amino acid.

Amino acids are the basis of proteins, which are essential to life. This crucial discovery supports the panspermia theory. Kathrin Altwegg, the principal investigator for this space mission, said:

With all the organics, amino acid, and phosphorus, we can say that the comet really contains everything to produce life—except energy. [ . . . ] But once you have the comet in a warm place—let’s say it drops into the ocean—then these molecules get free, they get mobile, they can react, and maybe that’s how life starts.^[8]

It seems likely that the molecular building blocks of life are as common in space as stardust.

2 The Bubble Pattern Clue

Jeffrey Moore, a planetary geologist for the NASA Ames Research Center, described panspermia as “reasonable by virtually everybody. Say you have several places in the solar system where organisms could multiply. Once one gets it, all the planets and moons with suitable environments come down with life. [ . . . ] They infect each other.”

Henry Lin and Abraham Loeb of Harvard University are avid supporters of the panspermia hypothesis. They even developed a testable model to prove the theory.

According to their model, if life shows up on a few planets and hops over to others, then the life-bearing planets form clumpy patterns. Spherical regions would appear as voids between the bubble patterns of life. This distribution would be a “smoking gun” for panspermia.

If life is spreading between planets, the populated worlds would cluster together in the vastness of space like colonies of bacteria in a Petri dish. Lin Loeb said:

It’s not that different from an epidemic. If there’s a virus, you have a good idea that one of your neighbors will have a virus, too. If the Earth is seeding life, or vice versa, there’s a good chance immediate neighbors will also have signs of life.^[9]

So, if life appears in these clusters of solar systems, we’ll have the panspermia hypothesis confirmed. All we need to do is keeping looking toward the skies.

1 Stephen Hawking Endorsed Panspermia

Panspermia isn’t a new concept. It was first discussed by the ancient Greek philosopher Anaxagoras in 500 BC. In 1903, it was dubbed “panspermia” by Nobel laureate Svante Arrhenius. His poetic vision was of plants and germs gently drifting through space by the mere pressure of starlight, so panspermia is Greek for “seeds everywhere.”

Today, the definition of panspermia as life spreading from planet to planet or even stellar system to stellar system continues to be a viable hypothesis supported by some of the greatest modern minds.

Prominent scientists at MIT, Harvard, and NASA are convinced enough that they’ve invested a decade of research and funding into the possibility. Even Stephen Hawking held the belief that life on Earth did not begin on this planet.

Hawking suspected that ballistic panspermia was the answer. In a lecture, he touched on some of the points given above, but his belief seemed to stem from the timing of life’s origin. The earliest fossil evidence of life appears a mere 500 million years after the Earth’s temperatures became stable enough to support life.

Hawking said, “Life could have taken seven billion years to develop, and still have left time to evolve to beings like us. [ . . . ] If the probability of life developing on a given planet is very small, why did it happen on Earth in about one-fourteenth of the time available?”^[10]

Basically, the evolutionary timeline just doesn’t add up. As technology develops at a breakneck pace, the hypothesis of panspermia may be confirmed sooner than we think.

Author Peter McAllister wrote a book called Manthropology: The Science of Why the Modern Male Is Not the Man He Used to Be. It’s a fact-based, humorous look at why modern men are inferior to their historical counterparts in almost every way possible.

Crispin Andrews talked to Peter McAllister to find out just who could beat whom in today’s sports scene. Here’s what he found out:

10Usain Bolt vs. Ancient Australians

Usain Bolt ran 100 meters (328 ft) in 9.69 seconds to break the world record at the Beijing Olympics. That’s 42 kilometers per hour (26 mph) for the world’s fastest man. But 20,000-year-old fossilized tracks from Australia show that, back then, ordinary people could manage 37 kilometers per hour (23 mph)—running in soft mud, barefoot. With spikes, a running track, and training, they’d have managed speeds of up to 45 kilometers per hour (28 mph).

These ancient Aussies had long limbs and robust leg bones that were 40 percent denser and stronger than those of modern humans. Being nomadic hunters who had to catch their own food, they had a need for speed. Kangaroos and emus were no slouches when running for their lives. Fossilized footprints are extremely rare, and the ones discovered are unlikely to have been left by prehistoric Australia’s fastest runner. The average modern human can run 24 kilometers per hour (15 mph), which is 18 kilometers per hour (11 mph) slower than Bolt. Let’s say that the ancient tracks were left by a runner of average speed. The Pleistocene Aussie equivalent of Usain Bolt would have reached speeds of 63 kilometers per hour (39 mph).

9Samuel Wanjiru vs. Native Americans

Kenyan runner Samuel Wanjiru broke the Olympic marathon record in Beijing in 2008, when he ran it in 2 hours, 6 minutes, and 32 seconds. Had a Mojave Native American from the late 19th century been in the field, Wanjiru would have most definitely been celebrating silver. Back then, the Mojave played a game called kickball. They’d run through the desert all day along the Colorado River, kicking a wooden ball in front of them.

By playing this game, an average Mojave expended 17,000 calories of effort in a single day, almost twice the amount lost by riders in the Tour de France. One Mojave man is said to have run 322 kilometers (200 mi) in 24 hours. Greek athlete Yiannis Kouros holds the world record for 24-hour running. In 1997, he managed only 304 kilometers (189 mi)—and he was running in spikes, on a track, and didn’t have to watch out for wolves and rattlesnakes.

8Kerri Walsh Jennings vs. Pleistocene Aborigines

The Pleistocene Aborigines would have also made great volleyball players. And not just for their Usain Bolt–like speed or their gangly physique that basketball players and fast cricket bowlers would have loved. No, these prehistoric Aussies would have had yet another advantage in a game of volleyball: long arms. On average, they had an extra 10 centimeters (4 in) at the wrist.

For a volleyball player, like Kerri Walsh Jennings, long arms are a must. Serve underhand, and those long arms create more speed to propel the ball over the net with power, accuracy, and grace. Longer arms place more force on the server’s elbow and shoulder joints. More force on the joints transfers to a faster serve. Serve overhand, and long arms produce faster speed, which reduces the amount of time the ball spends in the air. Long arms also mean a longer reach, which is crucial for returning opposition serves.

7Olympic Rowers vs. Athenian Oarsmen

If you think today’s Olympic rowers are the best there have ever been, think again. Olympic rowers might be able to move their boats through the water quicker than any previous Olympians. But 2,500 years ago, oarsmen who could beat any modern-day rower were a dime a dozen. In 427 B.C., an Athenian warship, called a “trireme,” managed the 340-kilometer (211 mi) voyage to Lesbos in 24 hours. When modern-day rowers had a go in a reconstructed trireme, they could only manage that speed for a few seconds. Over distance, their top speed was 9 kilometers per hour (5.6 mph).

According to one ancient writer, even a moderate Athenian crew could top that. At that time, Athens had 200 triremes and 34,000 oarsmen. After measuring their metabolic rates, scientists concluded that sustained speeds of 14 kilometers per hour (8.7 mph) were beyond the aerobic capacity of modern-day rowers. Athenian rowers, they deduced, must have had a greater built-in capacity for aerobic exercise.

6Wladimir Klitschko vs. Australopithecus

Wladimir Klitschko might look pretty mean—and he certainly is—but the multi-time world heavyweight boxing champion would have come out second best to our earliest ancestor. And that’s despite the fact that the tiny Australopithecus was, on average, a whole 60 centimeters (2’0″) shorter than Klitschko. It’s all about punch force. Chimpanzees have similar physiology to Australopithecus, and they have four times as much muscle strength as humans. They are known to deadlift 272 kilograms (600 lb), and one female chimp has been recorded pulling 572 kilograms (1,261 lb) with one hand. Get into the boxing ring with a chimp, and the chimp wouldn’t need to knock you out; it would just throw you over the top rope. Australopithecus were fast and agile, too. They would have gotten their best shots in while Marciano and Klitschko, lumbering heavyweights by comparison, staggered to defeat.

5Jan Zelezny vs. Ancient Greeks

Matthias de Zordo might sound like a B movie villain from the ’60s, but the 24-year-old German is, in fact, the former world javelin champion. Although his 86.27-meter (283 ft) throw was way short of Jan Zelezny’s 1996 world record of 98.48 meters (323.1 ft). But not even the great Czech, Zelezny, could have matched the ancient Greeks when it came to javelin throwing. The earliest Olympic champions threw over 150 meters (492 ft). Although, to be fair to their modern-day successors, they did use lighter javelins and had a leather throwing thong that added an extra 10–25 percent to the throw.

In the early 19th century, Australian aboriginal men of the Dalleburra tribe could throw their hardwood spears 110 meters (361 ft), unaided. British sports educator, Lieutenant Colonel F. A. M. Webster—himself a national championship–winning javelin thrower—reported that in the early 1900s, Turkana men of East Africa regularly outthrew him by meters using their traditional spears.

4Viktor Ruban vs. Mongol Archers

To win gold in Beijing, Ukrainian archer Viktor Ruban shot five of his 12 arrows into the bull’s-eye. And that’s from 70 meters (230 ft). Back when archery meant life or death, Genghis Khan’s warriors could hit a tiny red flag at 150 meters (492 ft). One of the Mongol horde’s best bowmen brought down a flying duck with a single arrow through its neck. Another is said to have been able to hit a target 536 meters (1,759 ft) away.

Carib archers of the 17th century could hit an English half crown coin at 76 meters (250 ft). Today, an average Olympic archer trains 40 hours a week. Mongol archers trained for 80 hours. They started at two years of age. It takes 10,000 hours of practice to reach elite level. By the time they turned 17, Mongol archers would have been practicing for 64,000 hours. Modern Olympic archers use high-tech, carbon-fiber recurve bows with sights and stabilizing weights. Mongol archers learned to shoot on horseback.

3Ilya Ilyin vs. Neanderthals

Kazakhstan isn’t just famous for inspiring British comedians to dress in dodgy green speedos and sing strange songs about potassium. Kazakh weightlifters are pretty good, too. Ilya Ilyin won gold in the 2014 World Championships. But no way would he have beaten a Neanderthal. With 20 percent more muscle mass than modern humans, male Neanderthals were 126–138 percent stronger than we are. Ilyin lifted 242 kilograms (534 lb) in the “clean and jerk.” His combined total was 432 kilograms (952 lb). With the same training, the strongest Neanderthal would have managed 309 kilograms (681 lb) and 554 kilograms (1,221 lb), respectively.

In the women’s competition, China’s Zhou Lulu broke the 75-kilogram (165 lb) world record with a combined score of 328 kilograms (723 lb). The strongest female Neanderthal would have lifted 475 kilograms (1,047 lb), beating the current world record in the heaviest men’s class. Neanderthal women were 145 percent stronger than today’s ladies and had 10 percent more body mass than the average European man. They had shorter arms, so they could have lifted even more.

2Javier Castellano vs. Mongol Riders

Javier Castellano has earned more money than any other jockey in 2014—over $25 million. In 2013, the Venezuelan earned over $26 million. Genghis Khan’s Mongol warriors didn’t earn that much, but they could have beaten any of today’s jockeys in a straight race. For the nomadic people who lived on the Mongolian steppes back then, riding was like walking. A fully fledged warrior could ride 130 kilometers (81 mi) in a single day, traveling over mountains and deserts. Genghis Khan used the riders to send messages around his empire. When his grandson, Khublai Khan, lost favor with the nomads, the Mongols lost their empire.

1Javier Sotomayor vs. Tutsi Men

High jumper Javier Sotomayor managed to clear a world record of 2.45 meters (8’0″) in 1993—pretty good for back then and too good for the world’s best since. But Sotomayor’s jump was nothing compared to the heights Rwandan Tutsi men were jumping daily during the 19th century. Olympic high jumpers battle for personal glory and team success. For the Tutsi, high jumping was more important than that.

In their culture, you were only considered a real man if you could jump your own height. And many of these guys were tall enough to make NBA scouts drool. Frequently, Tutsis jumped over 2 meters (6’7″). One is said to have managed 2.52 meters (8’3″)—and that’s without any training or technique coaching. Teach him the Fosbury Flop—the midair wiggle that’s supposed to add extra height to a jump—and he’d have managed over 3 meters (9’10”).

Crispin Andrews is a freelance writer from England. He writes about science, technology, popular culture history, sports, and the unexplained.

Of the crazy and speculative theories out there (and there are many as we all know), those that revolve around the notion that human beings are not indigenous to the Earth are perhaps the craziest. The idea is that we, or rather our ancestors, were brought here from another world, most likely as prisoners condemned to a life on a planet far from the rest of our ancestral law-obeying society somewhere in the reaches of space. (It is perhaps worth noting that some theories suggest our original “cosmic ancestors” bred with Neanderthals and so produced humans.)

One of the loudest voices in these outlandish claims is Dr. Ellis Silver, who contends that there are just too many differences between humans and every other life-form on the planet for us to be a truly indigenous species. While most, as you might expect, reject his claims as nonsense, they are intriguing nonetheless, and certainly worth looking at in a little more detail. Ellis calls his idea the “prison planet theory.”

10 So, What Is The Prison Planet Theory?

Like the name suggests, the prison planet theory and others like it speculate that human beings are not the product of evolution alone.^[1] It’s important here, right away, to clarify that these theories are not suggesting that evolution doesn’t exist, or is wrong, but that, at some point in our collective past, we were subject to some kind of outside manipulation. In fact, more than that, the prison planet theory suggests that we are, in fact, the descendants of prisoners from an alien world who were brought here in antiquity, eventually spreading, multiplying, and, as our history attests, setting out to dominate the planet, most likely shortly after arrival.

While most dismiss this idea, as speculative as it is, without any further investigation, an intriguing argument can be made as to its relevance. After all, human beings, for all their obvious flaws and faults, are far, far, more advanced than other living things on the planet. For example, why do other animals not invent, philosophize, organize politically, or aim to build machines to explore the world and, indeed, the stars? Incidentally, it would seem that only humans have such a fascination with the stars and what might lie beyond in the reaches of space. Perhaps this is an indicator of a subconscious calling?

9 Humans Have Persistent Chronic Illness

The prison planet theory suggests that most human beings, even those of us who are extremely healthy, suffer from chronic “illnesses,” albeit ones that are trivial when isolated.^[2] Think about it—when was the last time you felt truly “good?” No little niggles or twitches. No headache, or hay fever, or any manner of small annoyances that are barely significant enough to mention but seemingly plague each one of us.

Perhaps we should also look at humans’ reaction to the Sun, one of the main keys to our existence. Many other animals can sit out in the sunlight all day long with no effect to their health (generally speaking). However, humans will be sunburned within hours, while long-term exposure can sometimes result in a variety of skin cancers. We also squint our eyes in reaction to the Sun, unlike other animals. Even the fact that we have only a tiny auditory frequency range and can only see a very tiny sliver of the electromagnetic spectrum could be indicators of a home planet other than Earth.

8 Constant Back Pain

Perhaps the “niggle” which affects the greatest number of people is back pain.^[3] Most of us will have suffered a “bad back” at some point in our lives. And for many of us, that pain is a constant on-off, “good days/bad days” battle of fending off increasing aches, spasms, and, at worst, a complete locking up of this region of the body that’s so critically important for our functioning.

So why is this? Well, according to those who believe the prison planet theory, it’s due to a lower level of gravity on our “real” home planet. This higher-than-we-were-designed-for gravity on Earth is (taking into account the relative tallness of humans) what causes so many people’s backs so much strain. Such researchers as Ellis Silver, as trivial as this point is, believe this to be one of the main indicators that Earth is not our natural home. He argues, for example, that our flat feet should suggest a much shorter being (relatively speaking) than the average human. Needless to say, his suggestions are not entertained by most.

7 Humans Are Actually Better-Suited To A 25-Hour Day

As is corroborated by the research of sleep experts, the human body clock is much more in sync with a 25-hour day as opposed to the 24-hour one that our bodies have to work with. Quite a few sleep problems are blamed on this.^[4] There could be many reasons for the disparity, including that the Earth’s natural rotation speed has decreased a very tiny bit over the course of humanity’s collective time on the planet.

However, some researchers suggest that our “real” home planet very much had a rotational period of 25 hours, and the fact that our own natural body clock is still set at this would suggest that we came from somewhere else in the solar system, or even the universe. We will look at possible destinations of our potential cosmic ancestors in our last entry on our list. Our next entry, however, will look at the function most crucial to life—any life, wherever it is—reproduction, as well as why, for humans, this natural and required function is perhaps one of the hardest things their bodies are ever asked to do.

6 The Many Complications Of Human Childbirth

One of the main focuses of Ellis Silver in particular (but other researchers as well) is the truly traumatic experience that childbirth is for women.^[5] He claims that this is not replicated anywhere else in the animal kingdom, where births tend to be routine, uncomplicated, and, for want of a better phrase, easy (as much as that might be a little bit of a simplistic take on the issue).

While childbirth, at least for women in developed parts of the world with modern hospitals and medicine, is rarely a life-threatening experience, even today, there are still a plethora of complications that can arise, and unfortunate women still lose their lives. When we think back to the times before modern medicine, death in childbirth was much more commonplace. Like many of the examples on this list, this appears to be something completely unique to human beings. And, as we will look at next, it isn’t just childbirth but the first several years of human development that would appear to unique, albeit for the wrong reasons.

5 Slower Development Of Human Offspring

Childbirth isn’t the only thing of interest in terms of the prison planet theory. Even the development, or lack thereof, of human offspring is strange to some.^[6] For example, many young of the animal kingdom can walk within days, if not less. Human babies, on the other hand, are entirely helpless and remain that way for years.

It is suggested by some researchers sympathetic to the work of people like Silver that the human gestation period should be much longer. It is an interesting theory, although one hard to prove to any level beyond speculation. And even then, such speculation is pushing the limits of common sense, at least to some.

However, some people, particularly those who subscribe to the ancient astronaut theory, will tell you that this “abnormality” in the human gestation period is down to some kind of “interference” with the human genome long ago in the distant past that has resulted in this “premature” birthing of human young. And human genes are the subject of our next entry.

4 Extra DNA In Human Beings

A study published in Nature concluded that humans have an extra 223 genes, acquired during our evolution from bacteria. What if they’re not from bacteria? Might those genes be the reason for the absolute advancement of human beings by comparison to all other living creatures? And what about non-coding DNA, colloquially referred to as “junk DNA?” Might it be leftover DNA from an alien world and alien ancestors? It’s a wild thought, for sure.

It should be noted that other researchers did not fully accept the finding of 223 extra genes and publicly challenged it.^[7] Whether their challenge is legitimate or whether it is another case of mainstream academia looking to silence any voices that go against accepted thinking is perhaps open to debate.

3 General Anxiety

Although it is hard to see how completely “accurate” records of such a claim are kept and analyzed, another apparent consequence of our purported cosmic provenance is a constant feeling of anxiety throughout humanity.^[8] While you could make a pretty solid argument that our fellow humans—particularly those in power—give us all plenty to be anxious about without having to bring alien ancestry into the equation, it is certainly an interesting speculation.

There are also increasing rates of depression and suicide (itself an act almost unique to humans) taking over many parts of the world. Again, there are many grim and legitimate reasons for this, such as increasing poverty and pressures at work (and their implicit threat of poverty), as well as more indirect factors, such as political and social division, that make many people feel utterly helpless, in a hopeless situation over which they have no control. This, in some people, leads to feelings of detachment and “not belonging.”

Might it be down to a subconscious longing for a “home” many light years away and an existence just as far away, at least figuratively? Unlikely as it might be, it is an interesting notion.

2 How Likely Is It? Just Look At Our Own Examples!

So, taking away the logistics of such an operation for a moment,^[9] how likely is it that an alien mission to banish undesirables to Earth would go ahead? Well, if we assume a spacefaring extraterrestrial race has the ability to visit other planets, either in their own solar system or elsewhere, then why wouldn’t they transplant the unsavory elements of their society to a world far away?

After all, look at the many examples through history where we ourselves have banished prisoners to secluded locales, sometimes literally on the other side of the world (think Australia), or to gulags in the most dismal and uninhabitable terrain, as happened regularly in the Soviet Union. And while it is a little different in it’s only a small island in the San Francisco Bay, Alcatraz was, for all intents and purposes, a prison island.

1 The Asteroid Belt Connection

An offshoot of the prison planet theory revolves around all the points raised above; the only difference is that our theoretical ancestors were not prisoners but cosmic refugees escaping a destroyed planet. While many argue that this planet was Mars (and point to the theory that life could have existed there long ago), others suggest it to be a planet that once resided where the asteroid belt is today.^[10]

Might our potential cosmic ancestors have escaped a dying planet or one that was struck by a huge cosmic body? Might some of the population have managed to escape and settled on another world nearby? (Namely Earth.) Might this even offer a partial explanation for the plethora of ancient texts that speak about “beings who came from the stars?” Might these be accounts of our origins that have, over time, become twisted and misinterpreted into the equally ambiguous and suggestive writings we have today?

Perhaps this would also explain the 25-hour default setting in our internal body clocks? Might this planet—if we accept for the sake of this argument that it was a planet—have had such a rotational period? Might it also have had a lower level of gravity which would better suit us, even today?

Whether the suggestion is that we’re descended from prisoners from another world or survivors of an extraterrestrial race seeking sanctuary from their ruined planet, the idea that we, as a species, may share those cosmic roots is certainly food for thought.

Humankind hasn’t always understood the basic design of nature and the world around him. We know now that lightning is caused by static electricity generated through friction from the innumerable water and ice particles in a thundercloud. But that understanding took hundreds, even thousands of years to be fully realized. Before we had this answer, we still had the question, “What makes lightning?” Before the introduction of scientific reasoning the answers to that question and those like it were only found in mythology and legends. Here are ten examples from all around the world of mythologies devised to explain destructive natural forces.

SEE ALSO: 10 Historical Events With Hilarious Forgotten Details

10 Tsunami From A Sea Spirit

The Moken, a people living on a few scattered islands near the coasts of Myanmar and Thailand, have a legend hundreds of years old. In the legend the sea spirit Katoy Oken sends forth “monster waves” (Tsunamis to us, Laboons in their language) to purify the people spiritually and physically. The people felt the earth shake, knocking coconuts from the trees. They knew this was the ‘wave that eats people’, awoken and sent by Katoy Oken. They collected the fallen coconuts and went out to sea, hopeful that the man eating wave would go to the island and ignore the boats. Shortly thereafter the boats are slightly jostled and a village elder calls out to his people to look to shore. The water had retreated from the beach. What followed was a wave that reached as high up as the tops of the coconut trees. Katoy Oken’s wave had purified the island, but no Moken were consumed.

The legend survived in Moken storytelling for hundreds of years. In 2004 a magnitude 8.9 earthquake triggered a massive tsunami that reached across multiple countries. The waves killed 175,000 people in the region and another 125,000 went missing, presumed dead. One island of about 200 Moken was right in the wave’s path. When they saw the water recede from the beach all of them fled to higher ground immediately, because they remembered Katoy Oken and his people eating wave. Of the 200 Moken there, only a single one perished in the 2004 Tsunami.^[1]

9 Namazu Shakes The Earth

In Japanese mythology the Namazu is a catfish so giant he causes earthquakes with his tail. Originally he acted as a premonition of danger, warning people before a flood or heavy rains or other damaging event. But as time went on the Namazu became one of the Yo-kai, a creature of misfortune and disaster. Namazu is usually said to be contained by the god Kashima under a colossal capstone, but Kashima isn’t always diligent about his duties or grows tired and Namazu is said to be able to shake his tail despite Kashima. His uncontrolled tail causes earthquakes and tsunami.

Overtime Namazu became known as a punishment for human greed. His earthquakes destroyed the properties of the rich, forcing a redistribution of wealth. In more modern twist of the legend, Namazu is shown less as a force of nature and more of a symbol of cowardly civil servants who would rather hide than fulfill their responsibility to help in disaster relief.^[2]

8 A God’s Baby Trapped Underground

In the Maori creation myth the Sky Father Ranginui and the Earth Mother Papatuanuku were separated to create the earth and the sky and allow the light to enter the world. Still, their separation grieved them greatly and their children, on seeing this, decided to turn their mother over so she wouldn’t have to look at her partner who she could never again be with. However the youngest of her children, Ruaumoko, was still suckling on his mother’s breast when his older siblings turned their mother to face the earth and he was trapped underneath her.

Now in the dark and the cold, Ruaumoko was given fire to stay warm and became the patron deity of volcanoes and earthquakes. When he wakes, he causes terrible eruptions and must be soothed back to sleep by the lullaby of his mother. In another version of the myth Ruaumoko was never even born and its his twisting and stirring in his mother’s womb that causes earthquakes.^[3]

7 Battling Aztec Gods End The World

In the Aztec creation myth the duel god Ometecuhtli and Omecihuatl created itself from nothing and because it was both male and female it was able to produce children. These children represented the four cardinal directions: Huizilopochtli, Quetzalcoatl, Tezcatlipoca and Xipe Totec. These children then created the world. They realized that the world would need an energy source to sustain it, a sun, but a sun was too powerful for them to create. Instead one of them would have to become the sun. Which of them was the sun changed from era to era, but each time one of these four children became the sun, a natural disaster would strike the world and a new era would begin. This is known as the Myth of the Five Suns.

The first sun was Tezcatlipoca, but he was knocked from his place by Quetzalcoatl and in retaliation Jaguars were sent to eat the inhabitants of the world. During the second sun their bickering continued and Tezcatlipoca turned the newly created humans into monkeys, but Quetzalcoatl sent hurricanes and floods to wipe them out. The third sun was the younger god Tialoc and when Tezcatlipoca again caused trouble (stealing Tialoc’s wife) Tialoc caused humanity to turn into turkeys, dogs, and butterflies. Quetzalcoatl tried to eliminate these new lifeforms by raining fire and ash down on them. The forth’s sun was Tialoc’s sister, but Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatipoca were jealous of her. This time they turned the population of earth to fish and caused a great flood. The fifth and current sun, the god Nanahuatzin, is our age and it is said it will end in an earthquake.^[4]

6 A Vengeful Earth Mother

Across the countries of Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia live an indigenous people who revere The Earth Mother or Pachamama. In ancient Incan mythology she is a fertility god, a personification of nature, that helps to nourish and protect animals and plants. In the past, offerings to her included animal and even human sacrifices, but present day offerings are usually limited to dried Llama fetuses, rice, or peanuts buried.

Though known as a fairly gentle and easygoing personage, Pachamama is also said to be responsible for earthquakes, landslides, and lightning which she employs in her anger. These are directed at those who fail to care for the earth or its creatures in a kind way. This vengeful side of hers is reinforced by her frequent depiction as a dragon or a serpent.^[5]

5 Freedom Fighter Trapped Between Mountains

Bernardo Carpio is a mythological figure from the Philippines that is sometimes represented as a giant, but other times is a normal human with abnormal strength. In the tale Bernardo is a kindhearted and courageous person who joins the resistance movement. Which resistance and when depends on the time period the tale is being told, which is mostly remembered through oral tradition, but the common version has him joining against the Spanish. His joining the resistance is a huge boon to their cause, because Bernardo posses superhuman strength. As a child he pulled nails from the floorboard with his bare hands and felled trees with his father while hunting.

Eventually a local shaman used his powers to trap Bernardo between Mt. Pamitinan and Mt. Binacayan. The shaman’s powers and the weight of the earth were too much even for Bernardo’s immense strength, but he refuses to give up. Still trapped to this day, Bernardo keeps trying to free himself and every time he does it causes an Earthquake in the region.^[6]

4 Kagutsuchi’s Corpse Made Volcanoes

A Shinto god or Kami, Kagutsuchi was born from the creator gods Izanami and Izanagi.However as a fire kami, Kagutsuchi’s birth killed his mother in overwhelming flame and heat and she was sent to Yomi, the land of darkness. Izanagi was grief stricken and went to Yomi to retrieve his dead wife, but Izanami could never leave. She had already eaten food in Yomi, which trapped her there. When Izanagi lit a fire it was revealed to him that Izanami was rotting and riddled with maggots. She lashed out at her former husband and he fled Yomi. Once outside he took revenge on his child that had robbed him of his wife and sliced Kagutsuchi to pieces.

From Kagutshchi’s body and the blood dripping from his father’s sword other gods came into existence. Among them Takemikazuchi-no-kami and Futsunushi-no-kami, famous swordsmen and Kuraokami-no-kami a rain god. From his body parts also arose mountain gods, namely volcanoes. From eight pieces of his corpse rose eight volcanoes, which spew flame and heat just like Kagutsuchi did in life.^[7]

3 Plagues from “The Crouching Darkness”

In Ireland, before the introduction of Christianity, worship of a pantheon of gods was more widespread. One powerful deity worshiped was a god named Crom Cruach which means “crouching darkness” or “bent gloom”. One description of his worship paints the picture of a terrible and feared god who required human sacrifices. The Metrical Dindshenchas, a series of ancient oral stories put onto page by medieval monks included these verses about Crom Cruach:

He was their god, the wizened Bent One with many glooms; the people who believed in him over every harbour, the eternal Kingdom shall not be theirs.
For him ingloriously they slew their wretched firstborn with much weeping and distress, to pour out their blood around the Bent One of the hill.
Milk and corn they used to ask of him speedily in return for a third of their whole progeny: great was the horror and outcry about him.
The stirred evil, they beat palms, they bruised bodies: wailing to the demon who had enslaved them they shed showers of tears, prostrate their pouring.

Though morbid in his worship rites, Crom Cruach is sometimes considered a fertility god. If his worshipers failed to please him or failed to offer the sacrifices to him he was thought of as the source of poor harvests, blights, and plagues. In one story, the worshipers of Crom Cruach brought along an idol of him and insisted on sacrifices from the Gael people, namely their firstborns who Crom Cruach’s worshipers insisted must be bashed against the idol as a sacrifice otherwise Crom Cruach would put a pestilence on their harvest and blight their livestock.^[8]

2 Storms Stirred Up By The Thunderbird

The Thunderbird is a reoccurring mythological figure in multiple Native American cultures. In general this giant bird was empowered with the ability to control the weather and its beating wings produced thunderstorms, rain, and gales, but each tribe had their own variations of the myth. Usually rather than the cause of disaster, it used natural forces like thunder and lightning to defend and aid people.

To the Winnebago people the Thunderbird wasn’t singular, but a species and many could be found soaring the skies in their legends, but this species also had the ability to shape shift into human warriors. The Passamaquoddy people likewise believed it was a shapeshifter who could control lightning, but would never use those powers against humans, only villains. The Quillayute people believed it was a benevolent helper sent by The Great Spirit to help after natural disasters. One of their stories depict the Thunderbird arriving at a time when the Quillayute were desperate for food. It arrived from out of a thunderstorm of its own creation carrying a whale. It gave the people the whale as food, before disappearing again into the rolling storm-clouds.^[9]

1 Senseless Cause Of Disease and Pestilence

In Ancient Mesopotamia many gods were worshiped. They believed that the gods and humans were co-workers in maintaining the balance and harmony of the world, but if both men and gods valued peace than why did humans suffer? As a way to explain the senseless death and suffering that humans faced, the people of the Babylonian city of Kutha invented a god that had an uncontrolled temper. His name was Nergal or Erra. Originally those names represented two different gods, but over time they became so closely linked that they began to both refer to the same mythological figure.

Nergal is a god of calamity who senselessly lashes out, not to punish a sin or correct an injustice, but only because of his ill temper. In his wrath he was blamed for of diseases, plagues, and pestilence, but would also inflict senseless death on the battlefield as well.

In one story Nergal, for no reason in particular, decides to attack Babylon, but the city is defended by another god named Marduk. Nergal arrives, pretending to just be visiting the city casually, and expresses feigned shock over how Marduk is dressed. Marduk is embarrassed and says he just doesn’t have the time to get new clothes. Nergal offers to protect the city for him so that Marduk has the time to better outfit himself. When Marduk leaves, Nergal inflicts his wrath on the city—killing people indiscriminately in the streets.

Nergal is called before the other gods to explain his actions and in his defense he simply states the kind of god he is, “When I get angry, I break things.”^[10]

The human afterbirth consists of the placenta, umbilical cord, and fetal membranes. Although most of us have probably never given it much thought, we all have a placenta to thank for keeping us alive in the womb. This disc-shaped organ, weighing around 0.7 kilograms (1.5 lb), develops alongside unborn babies and separates their blood supply from that of their mother. Oxygen and nutrients can pass to the baby along the umbilical cord, while waste products can pass back into the mother’s supply to be disposed of.^[1]

In some cultures, the afterbirth is usually discarded as medical waste once the baby has been born. Others deeply revere the afterbirth and its role in the development of a new life, while scientists have extensively studied the possible medicinal uses of the placenta, umbilical cord, and fetal membranes. This has led to some fascinating rituals and uses for human afterbirths. Here’s our rundown of the ten most interesting ones.

10 Skin Grafts

Doctors first started using fetal membranes, which make up the amniotic sac, for skin grafts in 1910 after a study showed that it was more effective than using skin taken from human cadavers or other animals. Later studies discovered that applying fetal membranes to burns and ulcers reduced patients’ pain and chances of developing an infection. They also showed that the membranes were capable of integrating with the person’s own tissues. By the 1940s, fetal membranes were being used to help heal people’s wounds after surgery.

Following these discoveries, doctors became even more creative in harnessing the healing properties of fetal membranes. If you’ve ever been unfortunate enough to have a bowel fistula, where a hole develops in your digestive tract and allows the fluids to seep out, you may be interested to know that wrapping the affected area with amniotic membranes after surgery has been shown to improve healing time. In the 1930s, doctors successfully used fetal membranes to reconstruct the vagina of a woman with Mullerian agenesis, a condition which causes the female reproductive system to develop abnormally.^[2] However, the use of amniotic membranes for skin grafts has since been abandoned.

9 Traditional Chinese Medicine

The earliest record of placentas being used medicinally is in a text by the herbalist Li Shihzen written in the 1500s. He described using small amounts of dried human placenta to treat a mind-boggling array of different medical complaints. Given the placenta’s role in growing babies, it doesn’t seem so surprising that it has been traditionally used to treat insufficient lactation, male infertility, and impotence. However, Li Shihzen also described using placenta to help with seizure disorders, tinnitus, lower back pain, and chronic coughing.^[3]

Although the use of human placenta in traditional Chinese medicine has sometimes been used to support the practice of placentophagy (see below), women are not traditionally given the treatment directly after birth and do not consume medicines made of their own placentas.

8 Lotus Birth

Cutting or clamping the umbilical cord soon after birth is mentioned in literature in medieval Europe as early as the 12th century. However, many obstetricians nowadays recommend delaying clamping the umbilical cord until the blood has stopped pulsing through it. This can help to increase a newborn’s hemoglobin levels and iron reserves. Lotus birth is a far more extreme take on the idea of delayed cord clamping.

Lotus birth involves leaving a baby connected to the placenta via the umbilical cord until it drops off naturally. During this time, the parents carry the placenta in a special bag or pouch. Advocates argue that allowing babies to stay attached to their placenta even after there is no longer a transfer of blood helps them transition more gently to life outside the womb and has potential health benefits. However, many experts believe that this unusual practice comes with a significant risk of infection to the baby. There’s also the added downside of a “meaty” smell coming from the placenta as it starts to degenerate.^[4]

7 Restoring Female Fertility

In parts of Western Africa, the inability of a woman to bear a child is considered a tragedy. It is believed that the afterbirth can help to promote or restore female fertility if certain rituals are performed.

After a woman has given birth, burying her baby’s placenta and umbilical cord in the earth is thought to return her to her previous level of fertility and heal her womb from the trauma of pregnancy and childbirth. In Ghanaian culture, there is a traditional belief that infertile women can bear children if they urinate on the spot where another woman’s placenta has been buried.^[5]

6 Placentophagy

“Placentophagy” means eating the placenta. Some people believe that the placenta is packed with nutrients which could help a new mother recover from childbirth, boost her milk supply, and stop her from getting postnatal depression. There’s no limit to the weird and wonderful ways new moms have eaten their placentas, from whizzing them up with berries to make smoothies to cooking them with shallots and serving the whole thing as pate. Placentophagy tends to trigger strong reactions, and many people find the idea too revolting to stomach. So, is eating placenta actually healthy?

The potential benefits of eating human placenta have not been well-researched, and most of the evidence to promote the practice is anecdotal.^[6] However, there is a risk that a mother or her baby could get a viral or bacterial infection from consuming her placenta. Studies have also shown that human placentas contain heavy metals and accumulated hormones, even if they have been cooked thoroughly.

5 Spirit Guide Or Guardian Angel

Some cultures believe that the placenta acts as a powerful guardian angel or spiritual guide to the newly born baby. In Bali, the placenta is thought to be the earthly body of the child’s guardian angel and is treated with reverence, being buried carefully wrapped in a cloth inside a coconut.^[7]

In native Icelandic culture, the placenta is called fylgia, which means “guardian angel.” For this reason, it is believed that the placenta shouldn’t just be buried anywhere, or the child will be deprived of their guardian. Instead, tradition dictates that the family should bury the afterbirth under the floor next to the mother’s bed so that she walks over it every time she wakes. If this is done, it’s thought that the child will gain a spiritual protector in the form of an animal which suits their personality.

4 Birth Control

While some cultures associate the placenta with increased fertility, others use it as a means to prevent further births. In some parts of Hungary, burning the placenta to ashes and giving them to the male partner in a drink was traditionally used as a ritual if a woman didn’t want any more children.

According to the traditional practices in the Chkalov province in Russia, the placenta can also be used as a form of birth control. If it is buried with the umbilical cord facing skyward, it is believed that the woman will continue to conceive more children. However, should she not wish to have another child, she can dig up to placenta and bury it with the cord downward to prevent pregnancy. This ritual may be repeated several times to try to control the rate at which she bears children.^[8]

3 Cosmetics

Human placentas contain large quantities of proteins and natural enzymes. These can be extracted and used to make compounds such as alkaline phosphatase for use in cosmetic products. Such compounds can be used in face creams and serums to generate skin cell growth or smooth wrinkles, or as a hair-strengthening agent in shampoos.

In 2008, a scandal erupted in the UK when it was discovered that Poole Hospital was turning a profit by selling donated placentas to be used in cosmetics. Some women who donated their placentas said that they did so in the mistaken belief that they would be used for pioneering medical research as indicated in the paperwork they were given to sign. In reply, the hospital described the money they received for the placentas as “donations” instead of payments and stated that the funds had been used to buy lifesaving equipment.^[9]

2 Stem Cell Therapy

In Western culture, the umbilical cord used to be discarded, as there was no known use for it. However, it is now known that the blood left in the umbilical cord after birth contains blood stem cells. These are able to make red and white blood cells and platelets and can be used in transplants to treat children with blood diseases such as leukemia. Research is currently underway to pioneer the use of cord blood stem cells in adults as well.

It’s also possible to harvest blood stem cells for transplants from donor bone marrow. However, there are major advantages to using cells taken from umbilical cord blood. Unlike bone marrow, the process of removing cord blood is easy, painless, and harmless to both the mother and her baby. It appears that there is also a lower chance of the body rejecting stem cells from cord blood as opposed to those taken from bone marrow.^[10]

1 Ophthalmology

Although fetal membranes are no longer used for skin grafts, ophthalmologists have been using them to treat eye disorders for the last two decades. They can be useful in treating problems with the cornea, lens, conjunctiva (membrane covering the eye), and eyelids. Fetal membranes can be used to help tissue regrow if a person’s eyes have degenerated or been injured.

They can also act as a “biological bandage,” forming a dressing over a wound on the eye. As the tissue underneath heals, the membrane bandage gradually degrades and eventually disappears. Using fetal membranes instead of other methods of treatment can help to reduce inflammation and stop scar tissue from forming.^[11]